She'll Bring Honor To Us All (BWWM) ✓

Chapter 24: Fondest Memory

McGary's POV
"Which tape is this one?" I asked Rein as she casted another one from her phone to the tv monitor.

"This is a week before the attack." She replied.

We had only been going at this for a few hours, but it already felt like eons. I was currently draped over the spinning chair, drawing a dandelion on a napkin with a soy sauce packet I had found. For the first few minutes, I tried to help Rein out, but she quickly took over completely. She moved far faster than I could've at surveying the footage, so we just sort of fell into these roles.

"Hey Rein?" I called.

"Yes?" She answered.

"How many more tapes are there?"

She glanced down at her phone as she counted the links from the email Director Campbell forwarded to us. "7 more videos. One for each day up until the day of the attack."

She didn't even fully finish her sentence before I let out a groan. We had that many tapes left?

Rein glanced over at me and offered me a small as she witnessed the gravity defying position I had this spinning chair in. My dandelion was coming along smoothly though so I dared not move.

"McGary?" Rein asked after some time. I was so surprised she called my name, I almost tipped the chair over from how fast my head whipped to her.

"Yes Rein?"

"Tell me something about you."

I glanced over at her and she was still analyzing the tapes, but her body language had changed slightly. She wasn't looking at me, but I could feel her attention on me. "What would you like to know?" I asked.

"Anything. Everything. Do you have any siblings?" She asked. I pushed the wheels of the chair back onto the ground before spinning to look at her back.

"I do actually. I have a younger half sister." I replied. This caught her attention for a brief moment as her eyes turned from the screen to face me.

"Do you get to see her?" She asked. These questions weren't the most personal, but I was just taken back that Rein was showing any interest in my life. I had this goofy grin I just couldn't shake off.

"Usually once a month if I fly out. They live in Arizona so it's not too often when I'm working a case." I explained. She nodded slightly as her eyes continued to scan the screen.

There was a little gap between her next question, and I almost thought the questions were over, but I realized she was just casting a different tape. As soon as this one was rolling, she asked another question. "Do you like it here?"

I moved to answer- but I caught myself before anything came out. This was a question I hadn't anticipated...

Did I like it here?

That was ridiculous right? That I'd even question it... I mean, I worked for the U.S. government for Christ sakes. This was most people's dream job...

Wasn't it?

I thought back to how little I had gotten to see my family this past year. Honestly, it had become less than once a month. The craziest part was, I had the time.

I just chose not to.

This job made you secluded. Even when I wasn't working, I always had this mindset that I was. I would think about taking a trip out to see my family, but then I'd stop myself due to some bullshit work excuse.

I think in reality, the things I'd seen on the job were things I didn't want to take with me. I felt corrupt when I visited such a pure thing like my sister. I didn't want her exposed to anything I'd experienced.

Rein waited patiently for me to answer.

It took some time before I finally did.

"I'm not sure," I answered honestly. All she did was nod. Before she could ask another, I decided to ask a few of my own. "Tell me about yourself, Rein. Tell me about your most fond memory growing up." All I did was pray to god she had one, otherwise this conversation was about to go south very fast.

She took a little pause before replying. "It was of me and my father and my mother back home in Japan. I was very young at the time. My mother was diagnosed with breast cancer when I was around the age of 11, but I didn't know. All I knew was that some days, she didn't feel good, and some days she did." She glanced back at me again from the screen and chuckled slightly. She must have seen my sympathetic/horrified face because she added quickly "It starts off sad, but it gets better. I promise."

All I could do at this point was take her word for it.

"My parents were still stuck in a period that most Japanese people were... it was something we called "old Japan." A few times a year, there was festivals held where we celebrated the life of the samurai's, and the sacredness of the Bushido, otherwise known as the samurai code. This was my first time attending one of these. It was my last outing with both my parents before my mother started to get really sick. The day was spent with laughter and good food. I had never seen my father smile so much... The way he looked at my mother with such adoration..." she trailed off.

This was probably one of the most bittersweet memories I had ever heard, but as I looked at Rein, I surprisingly felt the happiness she did.

Knowing this was her most fondest memory made my heart feel like it was shattering. The more she spoke of her life, the more I wanted to be apart of it.

I just wasn't sure how.

"Got it!" She called out suddenly, causing me to jump slightly from my thoughts, and completely tip the chair I had, balancing on its wheels.

"What?" I asked, or more so groaned, as pain shot through the arm I had clumsily fallen on.

"We got him." She announced. I was flattered by the "we" part, considering I hadn't done jack shit for the past few hours...

Rein threw a copy of the framed picture we had received from the forensics team and placed it side by side with a screen shot from the surveillance video, and sure enough, the man scoping the art museum and the man in the photo were an exact match.

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